I’m happy to announce the release of Skedi Family Calendar 2.1 for iOS. In addition, to all the awesome features added in 2.0, such as repeating events, this release brings two great new features that you can take advantage of, even when you’re not using the app.

First, if you like to use iOS Spotlight Search to quickly find contacts, emails, or a nearby restaurants, you’ll now be able to use it to look for your Skedi events. Here’s how.

Swipe down from the middle of the Home screen.

Tap the Search field, then enter the event you’re looking for. As you type, Search updates results in real-time.

Tap a search result to open it in Skedi

Second, I don’t always like to open apps or Safari to get quick information. So, I’ve become a frequent user of the iOS Today View where, at-a-glance, I can get the latest weather forecast, news, and stock prices. And now with this release, you can also view your Skedi daily agenda in the Today View. The Today View contains Widgets, such as Weather, that you can add, remove, or reorder. The Skedi Widget lists the day’s events and the attendees. Here’s how to add the Skedi Widget.

Swipe right over the Home screen, Lock screen, or Notification Center.

Scroll to the bottom and tap Edit.

To add the Skedi Widget, tap the + icon. To reorder your Widgets, touch and hold the 3-bar icons next to the apps and drag them in the order you want.

What’s more, these two features, Spotlight Search and the Skedi Widget, are available in both the basic and premium versions of Skedi. If you don’t already have Skedi, you can download the latest version here.

I hope these new features help you with keeping your family on track. We’re always seeking customer feedback, if you have any ideas or feature requests, please let me know by commenting on this blog post. Thank you!

It has also been a busy year. My wife and I embarked on a major home remodeling project and we can’t wait until it’s done in early 2016. The Skedi Family Calendar app team released an iOS 9 beta this summer and continue to improve it with your feedback. Now, with only a few more tweaks left, we expect to release Skedi for iOS 9 in early 2016.

We are the designers, developers and distributors of GuSTO for Mentor InSight—an innovative educational company, founded by Molly Lavik. Mentor InSight’s mission is empowering superachievement. They do this by providing an environment where powerful connections and interactions with sought after advisers are possible. In this unique environment you can connect with advisers who can help you plan, strategize, and stay on track with making your dreams come true.

We worked closely with Mentor InSight to develop a tool that enables people seeking mentorship and guidance an unprecedented opportunity to engage with mentors by cultivating a sought after network of insightful advisers. Using the power of SKEDi’s advanced cloud calendaring technology, a platform has been developed where advisers have a bird’s-eye view of the plans and appointments of people pursuing guidance with accomplishing their most ambitious goals. This SKEDi powered platform enables your own adviser member network to provide vital encouragement, advice, and collaboration during the early-stages of goal attainment when it’s needed most.

Skedi Family Calendar for iOS 8 is almost here. In the meantime, we’ve released the fastest version of our cloud software ever. We’ve been working on enhancing our cloud and core API. Now, downloading and refreshing events in Skedi has never been faster.

By now, you’ve probably heard about the serious software bug known as Heartbleed.

Heartbleed is a problem in OpenSSL, a software library that is used by most websites to secure your communication using SSL (i.e., the S in HTTPS). Vulnerable versions of OpenSSL enable attackers to bypass the protections provided by SSL.

We’ve been busy redesigning Skedi Family Calendar for iOS 7. If you’re an existing customer, we’d love to know what you think of our beta version. Just send us consistent and timely feedback (positive or negative) and get the final version for free in the App Store. Exceptional testers will also receive a special gift.

If you’re already using Skedi, own an iOS 7 device, and you’d like to become a beta tester, please complete the following form: